Conservatives Rooting Against America? Yeah. Right. It's Obama's EPIC FAIL, Not America's

Okay, full disclosure: At first I wasn't all that worked up over President Obama's Olympics lobbying. Yeah, the push for Chicago had all the by-now routine markings of Democratic crony corruption, and America REALLY has more pressing problems for the president than to fly off to Copenhagen when unemployment's topping 10 percent and American casualties are piling up in Afghanistan. But now, yeah, you know --- I am pretty bothered by this. I'm especially bothered at the how the Democratic-leftists are now trying to spin the right's reaction to both the administration's stupidity and incompetence as cheering against America. I mean look at how dramatic this Media Matters video is, "Rooting Against America: Fox News Assaults Chicago's Olympics Bid":

And this one, "Rooting Against America: Beck, Right Wing Cheer Elimination Of Chicago's Olympic Bid":

AOSHQ has a post up taking Glenn Thrush to task for whitewashing of the Democratic Party's America-bashing and nihilistic cut-and-run defeatism. See, "Republicans Rooting Against America?" Ace won't link to his key example, but here's this from Salon, "Liberation Day":

I have a confession: I have at times, as the war has unfolded, secretly wished for things to go wrong. Wished for the Iraqis to be more nationalistic, to resist longer. Wished for the Arab world to rise up in rage. Wished for all the things we feared would happen. I'm not alone: A number of serious, intelligent, morally sensitive people who oppose the war have told me they have had identical feelings.

And naturally, that's just one example. As I often point out, Newshoggers cheered when al Qaeda in Iraq started using female Down syndrome suicide bombers to kill and maim American troops and Iraqi civilians. That was a "brilliant tactical adaptation." It's no coincidence that right now the top post at Newshoggers claims that "the Afghan election was always going to be a McChrystalization of all that's wrong with the occupation." Right. And that's the Democrats' "good war," remember, the "war of necessity." Just this week Digby encapsulated Democratic Party betrayal of America in Afghanistan:

The Democrats backed themselves into defending the idea of Afghanistan being The Good War because they felt they needed to prove their macho bonafides when they called for withdrawal from Iraq. Nobody asked too many questions sat the time, including me. But none of us should forget that it was a political strategy, not a serious foreign policy.

And, of course, Media Matters --- financially-backed by the anti-American George Soros --- has long mounted a campaign of defeat for America in Iraq. As David Horowitz and Ben Johnson point out regarding Soros-financed MoveOn.org-Democratic Party antiwar establishment:

While American forces battled al-Qaeda and Ba’athist insurgents in the Iraqi capital, the Democratic National Committee released a television ad that focused not on winning those battles, but on the very legitimacy of the war ....

In the midst of a war, and in the face of a determined terrorist resistance in Iraq, Democrats had launched an attack on America’s presence on the field of battle.

See also this post at Michelle Malkin's, "Media Matters In the Meme Streets of Baghdad" (on the leftist media generally):

Curiously enough, every time a major media source blows a story, they do so by publishing something that advances the message of the “emerging defeat” in Iraq, and that only thing we can do is to manage that inevitable defeat.

Folks can see why I'm frustrated. Leftists are the true haters and cheerleaders for America's destruction.

The loss of the Olympic bid today was a failure of Barack Obama, his corrupt adminisration, and his morally bankrupt party. Conservatives want them to fail, not the United States of America.

Tea Party Express Calls Out David Weigel at Washington Independent

I'm not involved with top-level planning whatsoever, but I just got word from the folks at Our Country PAC/Tea Party Express that the Washington Independent's David Weigel is making erroneous statements regarding the organization's place in the tea party movement. See Weigel's piece, "Discord in the Tea Parties?":

I’m hearing — though the players have not yet responded to my questions — that there’s some serious friction between one of the main organizations of the Tea Party movement and one of the late-comers. The main organization is Tea Party Patriots, the genuine grassroots group (with some marginal ties to FreedomWorks et al.) launched in February, after Rick Santelli’s CNBC “rant.” The late-comer is the Tea Party Express, the offshoot of the conservative, GOP-centric Our Country Deserves Better PAC.

Our Country Deserves Better is repudiating the "late-comer" characterization. See, "We’ve Been Proud Supporters of the Tea Party Movement." This screencap from the post shows a February 23 entry at the Our Country PAC MySpace page:

And here's the response:

A reporter for a Washington D.C.-based newspaper referred to the Our Country Deserves Better Committee this week as “late comers” to the Tea Party movement. We had a good chuckle over this misrepresentation, because the Our Country Deserves Better Committee has been involved in supporting the tea party movement since it all began way back in February 2009. We’ve learned to be patient when members of the press get their facts wrong about the tea party movement and the goals of all of us who are involved in fighting for our country’s future.

So to make sure the record is set straight here’s the history of our involvement in the tea party movement – it is one that we are very proud of. We’ve been honored to work with hundreds of thousands of tea party supporters all across America – and our work has only just begun!

David Weigel's a talented young reporter, but he's by no means objective. He was formerly at Reason, so his shift to the radical left is particularly interesting in terms of the left/libertarian axis. Anyway, he's not to be trusted. See my earlier entry as well, "What's Up With David Weigel?"

Added: Weigel has updated with another post, "Tea Party Patriots vs. Tea Party Express."

Gilad Shalit Alive: 'Proof of Life' Deal No Breakthrough - Egypt-Hamas Demand Release of Dozens of Terrorists

From the Los Angeles Times, "Israeli Soldier Held Three Years by Hamas Appears Healthy in Video":

Israelis today saw the first images of their country's celebrated hostage, a soldier who looked healthy in a televised video, declared he's being well treated by the Palestinians who captured him more than three years ago, and appealed to Israel's leader to bring him home.

In exchange for the video recording, Israel released 19 Palestinian female prisoners earlier in the day, a swap meant to advance long-deadlocked negotiations to trade the soldier, Staff Sgt. Gilad Shalit, for hundreds of Palestinians accused of militant activity.

Seated and speaking calmly in Hebrew from a written text, Shalit sent love to his parents and recalled in detail a 2005 visit his family paid to his military base. He held up an Arabic-language newspaper as the camera zoomed in on the date: September 14, 2009. After his 2 1/2 -minute statement, he rose from his chair and walked toward the camera.

Those details satisfied Israeli authorities that the proof-of-life evidence they had sought from the militant Hamas movement was filmed recently and that the 23-year-old captive was lucid and capable of walking on his own.

See also, Atlas Shrugs, "Proof of Life: Gilad Shalit": "Expect a boom in the kidnapping Jewish kid biz."

Yep, that's right. See, Haaretz, "Hamas and Egypt: Shalit 'Video Deal' is Not a Breakthrough":

Egyptian sources involved in the negotiations, as well as Hamas sources, emphasized Thursday, however, that the "video deal" is not a breakthrough and the negotiations for Shalit's release can be expected to continue for some time. The Egyptian sources said the deal has nothing to do with the main prize. "It's a positive step, but it must be understood that the work on the comprehensive deal is continuous and there are significant areas of disagreement," one Egyptian source said.

Sources in Hamas said that most of the contention now is over a group of prisoners serving life terms, as well as a way to allow for the release of other prisoners who Israel is refusing to permit to return to their homes in the West Bank. "There is disagreement over the expulsion of dozens of prisoners," one Hamas source said, "and how long they'll be forced to remain in exile. Hamas is demanding that their exile be limited in time."

And From Adam Kushner, "Israel's Trade ─ For the Gilad Shalit Video ─ Wasn't Worth It":

Israel has often found itself asking the question, how much is a life worth? This week they asked it with a twist: how much is mere proof of life worth? A whole lot.

The government yesterday traded 20 female Palestinian prisoners—accused (and often convicted) of crimes from plotting suicide attacks to carrying concealed weapons—for a video proving the soldier Gilad Shalit is still alive. Captured by Hamas in 2006, Shalit has been subject of several attempted deals, and when his freedom is finally won, it will likely be in a hugely asymmetrical deal. Is it worth it?

Probably not. Even conceding that a soldier's life is worth the release of hundreds of prisoners, Israel has several times gotten a raw deal from these trades. In one famous 1985 exchange, Jerusalem traded 1,150 Arab prisoners—some of whom turned around and started shooting again—for three soldiers captured during the Lebanon occupation. Even when they don't, trades like these convey exactly the wrong incentive structure, encouraging the taking of hostages.

Chicago Rejected in First Round of Olympic Voting

What a waste of time and effort (not to mention taxpayers' money): "Chicago Ousted in First Round of Olympic Voting":

Chicago is out. The Windy City has been removed from consideration after just one round of voting. Tokyo went out in the second round, leaving Rio de Janeiro and Madrid.

Also, from Michelle Malkin, "The noble “Sacrifice” of Michelle Obama; Update: Chicago & Tokyo Eliminated."

Elizabeth Smart Speaks Publicly of Ordeal For First Time

From the Los Angeles Times, "Elizabeth Smart, Abducted in 2002 in Utah, Speaks Publicly of Her Ordeal for the First Time":

For the first time since her 2002 abduction captured worldwide attention, Elizabeth Smart spoke publicly about her ordeal, testifying Thursday in federal court that self-proclaimed religious prophet Brian David Mitchell repeatedly invoked religion to justify the sexual abuse she said she endured for nine months.

"Any time that I showed resistance or hesitation he turned to me and said, 'The Lord says you have to do this, you have to experience the lowest form of humanity to experience the highest,' " said Smart, who was 14 when she was kidnapped.

Testifying in a hearing to determine whether Mitchell is mentally competent to face federal kidnapping charges, Smart, now 21, calmly said she had been shackled and repeatedly raped. She testified that Mitchell "married" her in a bizarre wedding ceremony the night of her abduction and that he believed he would vanquish the anti-Christ someday soon.

Her kidnapping set off a nationwide search, which ended in 2003 when a motorist spotted Smart, who was a wearing blue pillowcase-like veil over her face, as she walked down a street in a Salt Lake City suburb with Mitchell and his wife, Wanda Barzee. The motorist recognized Mitchell from news reports.

Mitchell and Barzee have been ruled mentally incompetent to stand trial in state court. Federal prosecutors have filed kidnapping charges against them and called Smart as a witness to bolster their case that Mitchell, who has been in a state mental hospital for years, is faking his mental illness to avoid punishment.

Smart has remained largely out of the public eye since her abduction, though she appeared on CNN to offer advice to Jaycee Lee Dugard, who in August was discovered 18 years after being kidnapped from South Lake Tahoe.

"I would just encourage her to find different passions in life and continually push forward and learn more and reach more for them," Smart said, "and not to look behind, because there's a lot out there."

More at the link.

At the video above, "Elizabeth Smart's Dad Speaks."

Laughing Matter: Audience Erupts as Letterman Admits to Affairs

Sister Toldjah's got the story, "Video/Transcript of Audience Laughing as Letterman Admits to Affairs." Plus, here's the YouTube from the Los Angeles Times, "David Letterman on Extortion Attempt: 'I Felt Menaced By This'":

Also, at AP, "Letterman Creates Brilliant Hour of TV From Woes." But see Neptunus Lex:

Have we really come to the point in our culture where child rape can be forgiven if you make good movies? Where the sexual exploitation of employees is forgivable so long as the exploiter makes us laugh? I ask once more: Who are these people?

Via Memeorandum.

Republicans Target Obama's Foreign Policy

From the Los Angeles Times, "GOP Targets Obama's Foreign Policy":

As he embraces direct talks with Iran and weighs his strategy in Afghanistan, President Obama is facing a new political threat from Republicans: Be hawkish on foreign policy or risk letting your party be painted as weak in next year's midterm elections.

Top Republicans have adopted that line of attack in recent days, led by congressional leaders and at least two of the party's possible 2012 presidential contenders.

Their warnings to the president mark a shift in tone and tactics for a Republican Party that had been largely supportive of Obama administration policies in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The GOP lost its long-held advantage as the party of national security when the public rejected the policies of former President George W. Bush in the 2006 and 2008 elections. But now, Republican strategists say that foreign policy could prove to be a potent weapon in 2010.

The Republican strategists are poring over Obama speeches, such as his June address to the Muslim world, that they can portray as apologies for American actions abroad.

Additionally, GOP strategists are homing in on Obama's recent policy shift on missile defense, in which the administration decided to cancel a radar installation in the Czech Republic and ground-based interceptors in Poland that had been proposed by Bush to protect Europe from Iranian long-range missiles. Obama wants to focus instead on combating short-range missiles that some intelligence officials say are a more likely threat.

Republicans are panning that shift as a unilateral concession to Russia, which viewed the Bush missile plan as a threat.

"The agenda is coming down the pike on national security, and Republicans are going to see an opportunity to regain the mantle," said Vin Weber, a former congressman from Minnesota who is advising the governor of that state, Tim Pawlenty, on a possible White House bid in 2012.

Well, it's not like it's going to be hard or anything.

I meant to post this earlier (and take five minutes and read the whol thing), from Pat in Shreveport: Caroline Glick's majesterial essay, "An Enfeebled Obama."

Cartoon Credit: Theo Spark.

Are Sarah Palin and Ann Coulter Good for Conservatives? or, David Frum's Political Stockholm Syndrome (And Charles Johnson's)

From Frontpage Magazine, "Are Sarah Palin and Ann Coulter Good for Conservatives?" (with David Horowitz on David Frum's emotional attachment to the right's partisan enemies):

It seems to me you are suffering from a kind of political Stockholm syndrome. You inhabit a mental universe shaped by media like Newsweek and the New York Review of Books, in which you are a hostage of the Left. As a result you’ve absorbed some of their attitudes, and look at Palin and other non-U conservatives through their eyes, instead of your own.

Also, amazingly, Charles Johnson's mounting a smear campaign against Palin's book. A Google link is here: "Sarah Palin's Book Ghostwritten by Associate of White Supremacist McCain." Pluse, here's the Google cached page of Little Green Footballs. It's okay to click without giving Charles Johnson any blog hits. Check Saber Point for more on that, "If You Just HAVE to Visit "Little Green Footballs," Here's the Way to Do It", and "Mentally Ill Blogger Charles Johnson Hides Shrinking Numbers of New Members."

Related: More Palin Derangement, " Steve Schmidt: Palin Would Be “Catastrophic” For GOPers in 2012" (via Memeorandum).

Sarah Palin: Going Rogue Cover Shot, Book Description Now Available

TrogloPundit's been having fun with the Sarah Palin photo I posted the other day at my Going Rogue announcement. So perhaps now's a good time to say a few words about Ms. Palin ...

It turn's out that Fire Andrea Mitchell tweeted the cover-photo for the book jacket of the autobiograpy, Going Rogue: An American Life. I've posted the picture at the sidebar. Click here to pre-order. See also, Conservatives for Sarah Palin, "The Cover to "Going Rogue: An American Life"; Updated: Harper Collins Book Description Added."

There's also an interesting story up at Politico, "Palin Co-Author: Evangelical, Partisan." It turns out that Palin's co-author is Lynn Vincent, who wrote Donkey Cons with Robert Stacy McCain:

There are at least three types of politicians' books. One is the overtly autobiographical, in which an aspiring candidate casts his or her life in heroic terms. Another is the careful, policy-heavy memoir. Some of those, like Obama's "The Audacity of Hope," feed public curiosity, but more often disappear without a ripple. (Remember John Kerry's "A Call to Service"? Didn't think so.) The more commercially promising sort is the third kind, the fire-breathing partisan tract.

Palin's choice of Vincent suggests that hers will be, emphatically, a partisan tract. And it is of a piece with a post-election posture in which the nation's most intensely popular, and most intensely unpopular, Republican has chosen to deepen her bond with her base at the cost of antipathy from the independent voters who decide presidential elections.

"Sarah Palin is not a Washington person - that's her whole schtick - so she's not going to get some inside the Beltway writer," said Sara Nelson, a longtime publishing industry watcher who is books editor of Oprah Winfrey's Magazine, "O."

"The success of this book will rise and fall on how much it appeals to the Christian right," Nelson said. She called Vincent "a smart choice," if a surprising one, given that Palin was represented in her dealings with publisher HarperCollins by the ultimate Beltway insider, lawyer Robert Barnett, who also handles Obama's book projects and those of dozens of other Washington eminences.

I'm betting interest is going to explode in upcoming weeks. I'm just LOVING that hyper-partisan angle. And Palin's going to start raking in so much PAC-cash it's ridiculous!

And, from Glenn Reynolds, "SARAH PALIN’S BOOK remains #1 on Amazon. Quite impressive, given the media hostility."

Anyway, Smitty at The Other McCain's got some additional samples from the Troglopundit experiment, "Sarah Palin AutoMotivator."

Plus, see my friend Dana over at "Common Sense Political Thought," and also, Ginny Ray at Obi’s Sister, The Blog Prof, and The Rhetorican.

David Letterman Admits Sexual Affairs With Staffers, Details Extortion Plot

From ABC News, "David Letterman Confession: I Had Sex With Staffers, Got Targeted by Extortionist":

David Letterman told the audience of his late night talk show that he had sexual relationships with female members of his staff, and added he forked over a bogus $2 million check as part of an extortion plot on the matter.

Letterman, 62, made the confessions to the audience during a taping of "The Late Show" for broadcast Thursday night, according to a statement by Worldwide Pants Inc., Letterman's production company.

"This morning, I did something I've never done in my life," Letterman told his audience, according to the statement. "I had to go downtown and testify before a grand jury."

During that testimony, Letterman acknowledged unspecified sexual relationships with staff members, the Worldwide Pants statement said.

"My response to that [allegation of sexual relationships] is, 'Yes I have.' Would it be embarrassing if it were made public? Perhaps it would," Letterman said. "I feel like I need to protect these people. I need to certainly protect my family."

Earlier this year, Letterman announced on his show his marriage to his longtime girlfriend, Regina Lasko, who he began dating in the 1980s. The pair have a son, Harry Joseph Letterman, whose impending arrival Letterman announced on his show in 2003.

It's unclear from the Worldwide Pants statement when Letterman's sexual relations with his female staffers occurred.

But according to the statement, Letterman received a package three weeks ago containing a threat to reveal those indiscretions "if Letterman did not pay the individual a large sum of money" -- specified in a later communication as $2 million.

More at the link.

This story's still pretty much breaking. See also, TMZ, "Letterman Says Someone's Extorting Him." (Via WeSmirch.) Nothing at Memeorandum yet.

Hat Tip: Fire Andrea Mitchell on Twitter (sceencap above). Plus, "Old Perv David Letterman Admits to Affairs With MULTIPLE Female Staffers."

**********

UPDATE: There's a Memeorandum thread going now --- it's going to be a big one!

Are Republicans Making a Comeback?

From Dan Balz, "A Republican Comeback?":

Are Republicans at a low ebb or making a comeback?

The question is prompted by the new release from the Gallup organization, which showed that the gap in party identification is now the smallest it has been since 2005. Democrats are still in the lead, but not by the double-digit margins they often enjoyed the past two years.

The report was the second in a month from Gallup to suggest that, eight months into the Obama administration, Democrats are losing favor with at least a portion of the electorate. Republicans are cheering the findings as a sign of a potentially important change in the political landscape. Democratic strategists offer cautionary notes about what is actually happening.

Bunch of caveats here, blah, blah ... then:

In the first three months of this year, Gallup found that 17 percent of all adults were independents who leaned toward the Democrats, and 11 percent independents who leaned toward the Republicans. Since then, however, Democrats have lost ground with indpendents and Republicans have gained ground. Gallup's third quarter data showed that 15 percent of adults were Republican-leaning independents, and 13 percent Democratic-leaning independents.

Jennifer Agiesta, The Post's polling analyst, did some calculations to look at how these "non-partisans" have leaned over the past few years in Post-ABC News polls. The results show a reduction in the Democrats' advantage of previous years. From 2005 through 2007, these non-partisans said they leaned toward the Democrats by margins of 13, 16 and 12 percentage points. In 2008, that fell to 8 points and so far this year, the gap has been 6 points.

Democratic Mark Mellman said the narrowing gap is not unexpected, given some decline in Obama's popularity and the state of the economy. "One would expect the Democratic advantage to be down from its recent highs," he said in a message. But he noted that a six-point advantage is still healthy.

Republican pollster Neil Newhouse said that, in the past few years, public antipathy toward Bush drove some self-identified Republicans to start calling themselves independents and Democratic-leaning independents to call themselves Democrats -- in other words a general shift to the left in people's perceptions of their party identification.

"In response to Obama's overreaching and overspending, what we're seeing is a slight reversal of that previous trend -- [independents] are turning against Obama and the partisan margin between [Republicans and Democrats] is narrowing," he said.

Democratic pollster Anna Greenberg called the evidence of movement mixed but said she believed that, with the shift of some independents into the Democratic camp, the remaining independents may be more Republican in their attitudes.

"Independents, by definition, tend to be more socially liberal than Republicans and less populist than Democrats, so I would expect them to express more skepticism about the role of government and issues of government spending when it comes to health care reform," she said.

That's actually a bit of over-analysis. Frankly, self-identified independents have been going up all year. The glow is off the hope-and-change bandwagon. The tea partiers have had a dramatic effect, and Democratic Party hubris and thuggery have been pulling down the left's numbers like anchors overboard. And as the public increasingly clues-in to the Democrats' culture of corruption at the highest levels of government, the GOP's fortunes will continue to improve regardless of partisan identifications.

Folks want effective government. The economy is not improving, and new reports indicate that the left's economic stimulus was basically a big-government scam (see Robert Barro and Charles Redlick, "Stimulus Spending Doesn't Work" ... via Memeorandum). And now that President Obama has prioritized Olympic lobbying over pressing U.S. domestic and foreign problems, new survey data find a plurality of Americans calling his Copenhagen trip a "bad idea." Don Surber sums up the overarching trend: "Change. Hope. 2012."

Brendan Nyhan is trying (hopelessly) to argue otherwise, and he notes that "the Republicans are currently viewed more negatively than any minority party in the previous four midterms in terms of both net favorables and the difference in net favorables between parties." According to Nyhan, it remains to be seen if these hypothesized negatives will "translate into fewer GOP House seats at the polls ..." Of course, the "generic ballot" measures mean that many questions remain "to be addressed."

All this political science is killing me!

Thankfully, Ronald Brownstein's got the remedy, "A Fleeting GOP Boost In 2010?: Republicans May Do Very Well in the Midterms Without Solving Their Demographic Challenges":

From all indications, the face of the electorate will look very different in 2010 from the way it did in 2008. That prospect presents an immediate danger for Democrats. But it also represents a more subtle, long-term threat for Republicans.

Small shifts in who votes can have big consequences on Election Day. And Democrats face the disquieting likelihood that the groups that most favor President Obama (particularly young people and minorities) will decline as a share of the vote next year while the voters who are most disaffected from him (white seniors) will increase their share.

The GOP's longer-term threat Cook addresses is the demography-is-destiny model of generational realignment to the Democrats. The obvious response is to remind folks that we haven't had a true partisan realignment since the 1930s. If the Dems were going to have one, it would have been in 2008. And how's that turning out now? The GOP's going to get back to basics. New candidates will emerge as the next generation of leadership for the party. The conservative/libertarian grassroots that's been mobilized this year will coalesce into a center-right majority as the prospects of electoral power come into focus. The long-term partisan challenge will be for the Democrats: How will the contemporary left develop a new governing philosophy on the shoals of the eviscerated hope-and-changism of the disastrous Barack Obama interregnum?

The Communist League in Canada

Well, as they say, you learn something new everyday. Check out this flyer from Canada's Communist League, via Lumpy, Grumpy and Frumpy:

World Capitalism Has Entered its deepest depresion that is part of the deepest social and economic crisis in living memory. Canada's ruling class families are fully part of the expanding wars in Afghanistan and Pakistan. 2,700 Canadian troops are in Afghanistan where Washington is substantially increasing the number of U.S. of troops and the power and the size of the command structure in that region. At the same time, 130,000 troops remain in Iraq ...

It turns out that the local candidates mentioned at the flyer as associated with Pathfinder Press, which is the publishing house for Canada's pro-Castro communist international. More on these folks at the link.

It's amazing how widespread is communist agitation today, in the U.S., Canada, and elsewhere. The agenda of the anti-capitalist protesters at last week's G-20 wasn't all that different --- perhaps more on the "anarchy" side of things. But next week International ANSWER is mounting nationwide protests to mark the 8th anniversary of the war in Afghanistan.

I'll have more on that later.

Hat Tip: Blazing Cat Fur.

From 'Knuckle-Dragger' to 'Traitor': Democratic Demonization Gets Threatening

You know, it's bad enough that we have cowardly Congressman Alan Grayson attacking conservatives as "knuckle dragging Neanderthals." That slur apparently received a warm welcome by the Democratic leadership. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi declared that Representative Grayson has no need to apologize, and that's despite widespread condemnation of Grayson from mainstream quarters. Gloria Borger decried Grayson's remarks as resorting to the exact same name-calling Democrats claim to denounce. The context for Grayson is Joe Wilson's "you lie" exclamation during President Obama's recent address on healthcare. Put aside the fact that the President is a liar and dissembler, it takes an awful lot of gall for Democrats to smear concerned citizens and their elected representatives in Congress as "knuckle-draggers."

That's par for the course, though, naturally. As Confederate Yankee so aptly put it earlier this week, "The Real Extremists Are on the Left." (Leftists at a CBS News blog suggested conservatives should be arrested and shot while "attempting to escape.")

So it's no surprise to see the genuinely evil hatred at The Swash Zone blog this week. The blog's proprietor, (O)CT(O)PUS, has declared a jihad against the "racist" conservative "birthers" and "teabaggers." See, "THE GRAND INSURRECTION PARTY AND THE POLITICS OF TREASON":

The party out of power has devolved from the Loyal Opposition Party to the Oppositional-Defiant Party,” and now the “Grand Insurrection Party.” The time-honored art of political compromise and consensus is dead. The GOP has opted out of participatory democracy.

Samuel Johnson once said: “Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel.” Your humble Octopus disagrees. The U.S. Constitution affords plenty of mud-wiggle room for scoundrels. If patriotism is the first refuge, the First Amendment is the next, where cowards assert their bigotry and stupidity by saying anything they want under Constitutional protection, or so they think. The Second Amendment offers yet another refuge: When reason and civil discourse fail, the malcontents and misfits of the GOP invoke this Amendment to incite others to violence by proxy, or so they think. The fear-mongering, hate-mongering scoundrels of the GOP overlook a fundamental point.

We have the same rights. We won the last two elections. We have a mandate to reverse the failed policies of the GOP whether they like it or not. With each passing day, the GOP has pushed political discourse beyond the fringes of civilization, and the time is long overdue to hold them accountable before more people get killed. I will defend my politics, my principles, and my person with words as I must and with arms (all 8 of them) if necessary. Octopus hath spoken.

If you check that link cited by (O)CT(O)PUS at bottom there, it goes to a site spreading more of the same leftists hysteria and smears surrounding the William Sparkman murder. Of course, as Ann Althouse noted recently - reflecting the view of more reasoned individuals, "I'd say that Sparkman, doing his census work, encountered a criminal enterprise — perhaps a drug lab — out where people thought no one would — or should — be coming around."

The real crazies are the radical leftists who can't tolerate passionate dissent. From Barack Obama to Nancy Pelosi, and then on down to the most frighteningly nihilistic elements of the extreme-left blogosphere, the Democratic Party looks increasingly intent to crush the free speech rights of traditional Americans concerned about real, rising threats of Democratic authoritarianism. It's quite amazing, really.

Representative Alan Grayson: Republicans Are 'Knuckle Dragging Neanderthals'

Yep, Represenative Grayson actually says it: Republicans are "knuckle-dragging Neanderthals who think they can dictate policy to America" (at about 5:55 minutes):

The "knuckle draggers" slur is pretty popular across the leftosphere --- which explains how stupid an attack it is. (The "knuckle dragging" associations are based on essentially racist stereotypes that have been debunked by scientific anthropology ... so much for the "reality-based" community!)

But check out Michelle Malkin's post, "Alan Grayson’s Diarrhea of the Mouth."

And in some related diarrhea, Matthew Yglesias applauds Grayson's politically incorrect demonology, and essentially extends the knuckle dragging slur --- in defending global warming hysteria --- to the "stupid" population of the U.S. conservative heartland:

In particular, you really can’t talk about the climate change issue in a sensible way without mentioning the irreducible wrongness of residents of a large developed nation endangering the lives and livelihoods of a couple billion people in the developing world with our industrial activities.

Stay classy, Matt.

First SNL, Now 'So You Think You Can Dance': Is Pop Culture Safe for Kids These Days?

I guess it's a good thing that I'm a news junkie, because popular entertainment's getting pretty raunchy these days - and that's saying something. Just last weekend, Jenny Slate swore on Saturday Night Live (and apparently Megan Fox put in a bump-and-grind star-turn with Kenan Thompson). And now it turns out that an auditioner on Tuesday night's "So You Think You Can Dance" flashed her private parts while rolling around on the floor. The New York Daily News has the story, " 'So You Think You Can Dance' Flash: Contestant Exposes Herself on National TV." But for a bit more of an in-the-know take, see DListed, "So You Think You Can Flash Your S***** On Network TV?":

THINK OF THE CHILDREN! First, Jenny Slate f*** bombed us all on SNL this past weekend, and now a giant bare vagina made an appearance on So You Think You Can Dance last night (see above NSFWish). No, Ryan Gaycrest was not a guest judge. An actual vagina popped out on stage when a dancer invited us into her carniceria during her audition. I KNOW! Our pure eyes have been tainted. We should have never boarded the Mayflower and come to America. Dark-sided!

Go to the OMG Blog for even more explict coverage (NSFW).

Everyone's apparently getting a kick out of it, but frankly, it's to the point where is actually not culturally safe to watch television - and readers know I'm no prude, But geez, I've got young kids!

American Nihilist Defends Suspected Terrorist Najibullah Zazi: Blames U.S. Imperialism!

Here's more of the standard-fare anti-Americanism we can expect from the demonic boys at American Nihilist, "Locking up the Innocent." The piece is defending Najibullah Zazi, who has pled not guilty to allegations the he's the mastermind of what's being called "one of the most serious terrorist attacks on American soil since Sept. 11, 2001."

Here's the comments, from Dr. Obama Biobrain:

The man pled not guilty, yet they're keeping him in jail anyway. What part of "not guilty" don't they understand? It might make sense to keep him locked up if he had admitted he was guilty, I mean, assuming he wasn't making a joke. But someone who says they're not guilty? What sort of justice system is this? Whatever happened to the presumption of innocence?

And the main thing to remember is that this guy's an Afghan immigrant, so we really owe him something. After all, we sent our imperialist troops to his country, sullying his native land with our impure materialism and infidel religion, and we were guilty as hell. Yet our troops roam free, even after admitting to the murders of thousands of his people, while this guy remains locked up for merely wanting to murder ours.

In other words, Americans deserve whatever Zazi and his allies are ready to dish out.

Great. Real patriots over there at American Nihilist.

For the full details, see Atlas Shrugs, "NY Jihad Raid Goes National: Denver jihad plot suspect admits Al-Qaeda ties," and "FBI: Notes on Jihad bomb-making in Zazi [the nazi's] handwriting - Target NYC,"

The Obama Experiment: 'President Obama’s Health Care Taxes'

From The Obama Experiment, "“Dictionary” on President Obama’s Health Care Taxes":

More good stuff at BarackObamaExperiment.com.

Related: James Pethokoukis, "Obama’s Not-So-Secret Plan to Raise Taxes" (via Memeorandum).

All American Blogger: 'Obama’s Cult of Personality'

Another great video from Duane Lester at All American Blogger, "Obama’s Cult of Personality":

Check RightWingNews for links to Duane's previous v-logs.

Nude Brooke Shields Exhibit Prompts Backlash

A photo exhibit featuring images of a young Brooke Shields nude has sparked a cultural and political backlash. Lots of stories in the news. See, "Exhibit Featuring Nude Photo of 10-year-Old Brooke Shields Sparks Outrage." (Via Memeorandum.)

Plus, the Daily Mail, "Tate Removes Nude Picture of 10-Year-Old Brooke Shields After Police Pornography Probe." And from London's Telegraph, "Tate Modern's Brooke Shields Photograph: A Crass Lack of Morals in Mink-Coated Reagan Years":

Whenever the Metropolitan Police force is called to an art gallery to defend our morals, you can be sure that the work they don't want the public to see will be one of the most important in the show.

Tate Modern's Pop Life is a fascinating show, but one of the most interesting works in it is the American artist Richard Prince's 1983 work Spiritual America.

It takes the form of a ready-made or found object – a publicity photograph showing the prepubescent actress Brooke Shields naked, her body wet from the bath. What's more, her hair has been elaborately done and she is wearing so much lipstick, mascara and eye shadow that it looks as though the head of a 25-year-old Playmate had been spliced on the body of a child. The original photo was commissioned with the approval of the child's mother who, as her manager, allowed it to be published in the soft porn magazine Sugar n' Spice as a tactic to get her daughter noticed and so further her career.

The Telegraph features a partial shot of controversial image. The full photograph is here, The Saatchi Gallery: London Contemporary Art Gallery.

Above Image Credit: Denver Post.

ACORN's Socialist Party Cadres

From Founding Bloggers, "ACORN’s Political Parties and Their Democratic Socialist Patron":

See also, Red State, "Inside The ACORN Rolodex: ACORN Has Its Own Political Party Other Than the Democrats."